Rainbow Early Education, a provider of early education services for children in the US mid-west, east and southeast, has received an investment from private equity firm Spire Capital Partners in partnership with management to acquire and organically build upon its existing footprint of schools.
As part of the investment, Rainbow effectuated the acquisition of Little Pro’s Academy Holdings and Mayberry Learning Center, bringing total schools under management at Rainbow to 30.
In addition, the acquisitions expanded Rainbow’s service offerings, as the company will now manage over ten before-and-after school programmes in conjunction with public schools.
Spire has also committed significant growth capital to support the expansion of Rainbow’s existing operations.
Patrick Fenton will continue to lead the Rainbow management team as chief executive. Fenton founded, led and sold Rainbow Child Development Centers, a Michigan-based early education company, to the Learning Care Group in 2008 after having founded and built the company for 20 years.
Paul Hafeli will continue in his role of chief financial officer and Karen Krygier will serve as the vice president of operations.
"I am thrilled to be leading Rainbow into this significant growth phase of the company," says Fenton. "Our proven management team will continue to do what we enjoy; providing high quality education to children throughout the country and a dedicated service to parents seeking the best education and care for their children. Our team has operated some of the best schools in the mid-west for 20+ years and we are thrilled to expand our services into the southeast and think there will be tremendous opportunity to provide our first class level of service to new children as we continue to grow."
"We believe Rainbow is well-positioned to capitalise on the increasing importance of early education for children and to provide its high level of service in additional communities," adds David Schaible (pictured), principal at Spire. "We are excited to partner with Patrick and his management team; they are well known in the industry and proven educators/operators who provide a best-in-class service for young children and the parents that depend on their schools."
